When the door had shut on him I went across to the chair beside the fire. It was not true that I wanted time to think. All I needed was silence, and the fire. Bit by bit, slowly, I emptied my mind, feeling thought spill out of me like sand from a glass, to leave me hollow and light. I waited, my hands slack on the grey robe, open, empty. It was very quiet. Somewhere, from a dark corner of the room, came the dry tick of old wood settling in the night. The fire flickered. I watched it, but absently, as any man might watch the flames for comfort on a cold night. I did not need to dream. I lay, light as a dead leaf, on the flood that ran that night to meet the sea.

Outside the door there were sounds suddenly, voices. A quick tap at the panel, and Cadal came in, shutting the door behind him. He looked guarded and a little apprehensive.

“Gorlois?” I asked.

He swallowed, then nodded.

“Well, show him in.”

“He asked if you had been to see the King. I said you’d been here barely a couple of hours, and you had had time to see nobody. Was that right?”

I smiled. “You were guided. Let him come in now.”

Gorlois came in quickly, and I rose to greet him. There was, I thought, as big a change in him as I had seen in Uther; his big frame was bent, and for the first time one saw straight away that he was old.

He brushed aside the ceremony of my greeting. “You’re not abed yet? They told me you’d ridden in.”

“Barely in time for the crowning, but I shall see it after all. Will you sit, my lord?”

“Thanks, but no. I came for your help, Merlin, for my wife.” The quick eyes peered under the grey brows. “Aye, no one could ever tell what you were thinking, but you’ve heard, haven’t you?”

“There was talk,” I said carefully, “but then there always was talk about Uther. I have not heard anyone venture a word against your wife.”

“By God, they’d better not! However, it’s not that I’ve come about tonight. There’s nothing you could do about that—though it’s possible you’re the only person who could talk some sense into the King. You’ll not get near him now till after the crowning, but if you could get him to let us go back to Cornwall without waiting for the end of the feast . . . Would you do that for me?”

“If I can.”